Nick
Morgan, the author of Trust Me: Four
Steps to Authenticity and Charisma, starts his book by stating that:

“Every conversation is two
conversations: the verbal one—the content—and the nonverbal one—the body
language. If the two are aligned, you can be a persuasive, authentic
communicator. You may even come across as charismatic. If the two are not
aligned, people believe the nonverbal communication every time—you will not seem authentic, even if you’re
just authentically nervous! People will believe that you’re faking, or hiding
something, or not completely present.”

Aligning
the verbal and nonverbal conversations takes time and energy, and some
presenters will be much better at it than others, but the gains you make will
be worth the effort you put into it.

The Four Steps

Morgan
breaks his process into four steps:

·Being
open

·Being
connected

·Being
passionate

·Listening

Of
the four steps, being open is probably the most difficult to master. Years of
competition with other companies for market share and colleagues for
promotions convinces many executives that they must guard their feelings for
fear of revealing a weakness. Morgan argues that those strategies might have
worked in the past, but societal changes alter audiences’ expectations both
in the workplace and without, with the result that effective communication
requires communicators to expose their inner selves more completely than
before.

Morgan
spends one chapter on the verbal aspect of openness, but immediately after
turns to the book’s main focus: the nonverbal conversation. He argues that
the key to establishing a rapport with one’s audience is to gain their trust
through the effective use of body language. Making eye contact isn’t nearly
enough…Morgan cites researcher Paul Ekman, who notes that where you look is
the simplest behavior to control and is the most easily faked. For humans who
grew up reading other humans’ facial expressions as a means of survival, the
other, more subtle expressions and gestures mean much more than simple eye
contact.

Speakers,
like golfers, have long argued that there’s too much to think about when
they’re trying to develop their technique. It’s true that it takes a lot of
work to achieve facility with speaking or golf, but it’s far better to
develop your skills on the driving range or in a workshop instead of on NBC.
Yes, you could just improvise, but that carries its own risks.

Improvisation Isn’t Natural

There’s
a myth about the power of improvisation, namely that confident presenters who
are sure of their material can stand up and talk about their specialty for an
hour without notes. Morgan does his best to debunk that myth, stating in part
that “[t]he irony of leadership in the media age is that winging it looks
fake; only the prepared can look authentic.”

Anyone
who has tried to fake their way through a presentation can tell you that
improvising is a hit or miss proposition. As a professional improvisational
comedian, I can testify that the audience only forgives the small
inconsistencies and hesitations that come up because they realize how hard it
is to improvise scenes based on suggestions heard just a few seconds before.
Some viewers point to Robin Williams as a counter-example, but the truth is
that Robin Williams doesn’t improvise during his major public performances…he
scripts everything he does and plans each of his seemingly impromptu trips
into the audience meticulously. The real magic is how he comes up with the
routines and hones them through rehearsal and performances in smaller venues
than those where he performs for the cameras.

Why
is it so hard to improvise? Because confidence comes from knowing what comes
next. When you have to remember your next point or haven’t established your
intention behind that point, your body language and words get out of synch
and you are in danger of delivering mixed messages to your audience. The
slip-ups and hesitations that audiences tolerate in an improvised scene have
no place in professional communication, which is why attack journalists who
want to make someone look foolish try to surprise their subjects with
unexpected questions they’ve analyzed but the interviewee has not.

Crossing Over into Entertainment

Most
of the literature on corporate rhetoric covers the mechanics of crafting a
presentation and rehearsing what you want to say, but offer no more than
superficial advice in how to prepare as a character. For example, Morgan’s
earlier book Working the Room, published
in paperback as Give Your Speech,
Change the World, coached readers to create a presentation that convinced
listeners why it was in their best interest to take the action you advocate.
In that book, Morgan covered a variety of techniques to help speakers improve
their delivery and calm their nerves, but spent little time on the non-verbal
conversation that’s the focus of his new book.

I
have read one book that’s directly comparable to Trust Me: Ken Weber’s Maximum
Entertainment, which he wrote for magicians and other corporate
entertainers. Weber earned his theatre degree at Hofstra, spent thirty years
as a corporate entertainer, and is now the head of the New York investment
firm Weber Asset Management. His goal when writing Maximum Entertainment was to provide director’s notes to
entertainers who have no access to a theatrical director. Morgan does exactly
the same thing. Although Weber’s book delves into technical performance
skills that Trust Me doesn’t cover,
both Morgan and Weber agree on the importance of scripting, rehearsal,
sincerity, and connection with the audience.

I
should add that Morgan covers aspects of theatrical characterization, such as
the Stanislavski method of sense memory development and the importance of
intention, that Weber doesn’t go over in any detail, so the two books
complement each other very effectively.

Conclusion

Nick
Morgan’s Trust Me approaches
corporate and executive communication from a new and different perspective,
that of the professional performer. His approach acknowledges the realities
of modern business and, once you get beyond the first few uncomfortable steps
where you’re thinking of a thousand things at once, you will communicate more
openly, authentically, and charismatically.

Curtis
Frye

Curtis Frye (cfrye@techsoc.com) is a Microsoft Office
Excel MVP, freelance writer, and corporate entertainer. For more information
on his Excel books and free help files, visit www.thatexcelguy.com. If you’re
looking for a keynote speaker or entertainer to kick off a sales meeting or
provide after-dinner entertainment, visit www.curtisfrye.com.